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First off, both of these tools will stop autorun from functioning on any flash drives you "treat". So if you are using a U3 drive (or some other USB flash drive based suite of tools that boots up when you insert the drive into a PC) and want to keep the automatic loading of features you now have, don't run these tools. But be aware that you are at severe risk for infections like the recent Conflicker worms. (IMO, USB flash drives should never be allowed to autorun under ANY circumstances! Ever!)

Both tools are effective. Carefully read about them and ask any questions you may have before running them! With this said, the tools are:

Flash Disinfector - This one that has already been mentioned here. It treats USB flash drives to prevent them from spreading autorun viruses and worms. (It scans for a few of the more common malware worms/viruses and then creates a new, special autorun folder that helps to prevent future unwanted autorun-based startups.) This treatment can be manually undone if you want/need to do so by manually deleting the autorun folder. http://download.bleepingcomputer.com...isinfector.exe

Panda USB Vaccine - This one is a fairly new program. It allows you to immunize both your PC and your (FAT/FAT32 only for now) USB flash drives against autorun issues. At this point ( March 28, version 1.0.0.19), it is a standalone executable. When you run it, it allows you 2 choices. Immunize the PC (which can be reversed (using the program) if you wish) or a flash drive. One critical item about the flash drive immunization in Panda USB Vaccine is that once you immunize a flash drive, with one exception, it is permanent. (It sets an autorun.inf that cannot be accessed, edited or deleted. And at this stage, Panda's not saying how they do this!)) If you later decide you don't want the autorun.inf file, the only way to remove it is to format the USB flash drive (which means you will erase everything on the drive and start over with a blank drive.) http://research.pandasecurity.com/ar...n-Vaccine.aspx

**EDIT**
One thing to keep in mind that these tools do not in any way impede the normal use of a flash drive. You can still copy or transfer files like always. It's just that the autorun feature is turned off. So, it is possible for a virus or worm to still be copied to the drive. What these tools do is prevent the worm or virus from automatically infecting the next computer it's inserted in.

After using both methods, I have switched all of my flash drives to the Panda method. But the other one is still effective and wouldn't require a format to remove (like the Panda method does.) I just feel the Panda version may be a little more bullet proof.

I used Flash Disinfector to clean a colleague's pen drive and was able to open it.
I asked him to format it after.

The next time the pen drive was inserted in mt PC, the autorun virus was still there again.

I think his PC is infected.What Do I do to help him?

What likely happened was that during the format, the autorun.inf folder that Flash Disinfector had created was deleted. As soon as the flash drive was blank, it was immediately infected again. For the protection to work, the autorun.inf that either Flash Disinfector or the Panda tool creates needs to stay in place.

The root cause of all of this in an infected PC. So a cleanup like SpywareDr is advising is definitely the thing to do...

What a find HAN and I appreciate your sharing it also.
I haven't seen the question asked so maybe those who have already posted about this, know the answer. But I have accumulated several thumb drives and I ran each of them using the disinfector. Is this the thing to do and should I disinfect them again on my second computer? I was not, and still am not sure that it is the thumb drive being served the protection or the computer or both. TIA.

EDIT: I just re-read fink's post and it appears that I did right in "doing" each of my thumb drives.

What a find HAN and I appreciate your sharing it also.
I haven't seen the question asked so maybe those who have already posted about this, know the answer. But I have accumulated several thumb drives and I ran each of them using the disinfector. Is this the thing to do and should I disinfect them again on my second computer? I was not, and still am not sure that it is the thumb drive being served the protection or the computer or both. TIA.

EDIT: I just re-read fink's post and it appears that I did right in "doing" each of my thumb drives.

Flash Disinfector only treats the flash drive. So once it's done, you shouldn't need to treat them again on a different PC. But to the other part of your question, yes, it's critical to treat each flash drive.

Keep in mind that neither Flash Disinfector or the Panda USB Vaccination tool keeps a flash drive from being infected. They just prevent the virus/worm/trojan horse from automatically spreading itself to the next PC it's plugged into.

The Panda USB Vaccination tool can treat both the PC and the USB flash drive. As I noted above, I feel that the Panda method may be the best overall protection at this stage. Once it writes the autorun.inf file to the flash drive, it cannot be removed except for formatting the flash drive. That's pretty iron clad. And the PC protection by the Panda tool bypasses the problems Microsoft has had stopping autorun on XP PCs. So all in all, the Panda tool covers both avenues very well...

Update for Flash Disinfector

The latest version of Flash Disinfector (download link noted in post 1 of this thread) has a notable change in how it prevents USB drives from spreading malware.

Specifically, the autorun.inf folder created on the USB flash drive is now significantly hardened against deletion. Normal deletion within Windows is now blocked. The only way to delete the folder now is either a format or as outlined here http://www.myantispyware.com/2009/01...runinf-folder/

So, this now means that either of these 2 methods can be recommended again. Both will do a good job of neutering a USB flash drive as the delivery method of spreading malware. (Keep in mind that only Panda can treat BOTH the PC and a flash drive. Flash Disinfector only treats flash drives.)